On 28 July 2011, Alkarama submitted Mr Al Abbas's case to the Special Rapporteur on Torture in order to urge Syrian government to refrain from any torture and immediately release him. We also requested that Mr Al Abbas's family be immediately informed about his whereabouts.

During the raid, the above mentioned agents broke down the doors to the house and searched the entire house without presenting any arrest or search warrant. According to detainees who were held with him and are now released, Mr Awad Al Abbas was savagely tortured in Damascus Air Intelligence Branch before being taken to the General Administration Prison (Al Idarra Al 'Amma, on Baghdad Street, Damascus). Mr Al Abbas remains in incommunicado detention and the authorities refuse to provide his family with any information about his fate or whereabouts.

We submit Al Abbas's arrest is a direct consequence of his bother's activities, more particularly for having exercised his right to the freedom of expression and association in the context of peaceful demonstrations in Syria. The violation of this right is in line with the observed patterns of widespread human rights abuses in Syria, particularly the government's stringent crackdown on the freedom of expression and association in recent months.

Mr Al Abbas's arrest comes in the context of numerous other arrests and detention of human rights activists, peaceful demonstrators and members of the political opposition. These acts are in clear violation of Syria's international human rights obligation.